green inchworms (cankerworms) have killed my trees? (flowers, containers, insect)

[goat1of2]

Well, our inchworm infestation seems to have died down and now it's time to assess the carnage. All the lower limbs on our massive willow oaks are completely stripped of leaves, some of the twigs are already brittle, presumably dead. The plum tree has been 50% eaten.

Will these limbs be able to regrow leaves or will they just die? Is there anything I can do to help besides wring my hands and wail? (Oh, we live in central NC where we saw record numbers of these things this year--on account of never really having winter!)

[cittic10]

The limbs should regrow leaves.
Of course repeated attacks could weaken the trees.

Be sure to band your trees in the fall to keep the buggers from climbing up to the top of the tree.

[Giesela]

Yes, they can weaken and hurt a tree. I would do as the above poster suggests and research what you can as I don't think this is the end of it. There may be another hatch/batch?

[KSpring]

Hi! Up here in Richmond, Virginia the inchworm invasion is even worse than that! We've got about 7 very large oak trees that have been completely defoliated. Yes, completely!! And that's just in our yard - all up and down the street it is the same. So many smaller trees are also COMPLETELY, yes, again _completely_ defoliated that I am not really able to count them! In fact, when the inchworms finished defoliating 4 large oak trees (probably about 30-40 years old) in front of our window, they fell to the azaleas below and devoured those as well! They ate azalea leaves, flowers --- and also the flowers of some late-blooming daffodils. Their webs were everywhere - they were everywhere ... see: waking up in the middle of the night for that tell-tale feathery soft crawl inside my shirt ... see: jump hysterically out of bed to get it off me!
At one point we had hundreds crawling all over the florida room (outside) after having fallen from aforementioned defoliated oaks... and probably about a hundred or so crawling all over our mailbox. It was creepy - it was epic .... it was Biblical!
Seriously .... I have never in my life witnessed anything like it. They devoured all the leaves off of 2 very, very tall oak trees in a matter of about 5 days.
For two solid weeks we heard a constant non-stop "rain" of worm poop falling from the trees. Seriously -- it sounded like a loud steady constant rain -- it went on day and night. Everything got covered in the little hard brown pellets. ugh ... "sick"!!!
never ever ever seen anything like it in my life - I'm not old, but still .....

[nmnita]

this seems to be the year of the worms. As much as so many of us have been affected by one kind or the other, plus catapillers everywhere, we can be thankful we are not living in the days our grandparents lived, the days they had to depend on the harvest of the vegetables to live and to eat. I just can't imagine what their lives must have been like. I think the same thing, every year when I start the summer canning as a way to bond with my daughter and enjoy just looking at the finished product. We have food processors, choppers, air conditioning, dish washers, electric or gas stoves, freezers and freezer storage containers. For us it is fun even though it is a lot of work, for them it was work and I doubt much fun.

[Icy Tea]

Every year we get little green inch worms in our cherry tree. You'll find leaves from the tree on the ground " sewn" together , folded in half, and inside it will be a tiny green caterpillar. You'd also seem them dangling on a silk thread if they fell off a leaf. We don't get as many anymore since we've put up wren houses so I guess they eat them. Anybody have any idea what they are?

[eoliver]

All you need to do is go to walmart grab insect spray in the garden section. Hook to garden hose and spray trees or any area you have cranker worms. Work wonderfully...